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The Informer

Sources say Los Angeles Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal got $200,000 as a pitchman for Znetix, a Seattle-area health club firm that the Securities & Exchange Commission recently called a fraud. Court filings allege founder Kevin Lawrence raised $74 million from investors by promising a public offeringwhich didn't happenbut spent much of the cash on himself. He denies wrongdoing. Other touts who, for stock down the road, signed endorsement deals: pro footballers Tim Brown, Marcus Allen, Tony Gonzalez and Shannon Sharpe. No jock is being sued. Their agents all had no comment.
Victoria Murphy

Avon Ladies, Tupperware and Bin Laden

After Sept. 11 Avon Products' door-to-door sales force wore red-and-blue heart-shaped brooches. Result: a big 10% jump in last-quarter sales. "The greatest door-opener of all time," an Avon exec crows. Tupperware, which also stresses at-home sales, changed the name of one product from "Forget-Me-Not" to "Forget-Them-Not" and also added patriotic colors. Year-end sales rose 16%. Experts say such at-your-door retailers gained from fears about terrorism at malls and other public places.
Katarzyna Moreno

Mob? What Mob?

Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's famous daily business paper (circulation, 1.8 million), confirms it started an internal investigation after shady-looking characters with big checks issued by a Shimbun subsidiary showed up at check-cashing outfits. Others suggest gangsters reaped $40 million by blackmailing one or more top officials. That sub's head just took another post. Don't expect much disclosure: The privately held paper has long discouraged reporting about organized crime.
Benjamin Fulford

Break Out the Bubbly

The U.S. Tax Court has ruled that the 40% stake in century-old Guerneville, Calif. champagne maker F. Korbel &Bros. held by family matriarch Richie C. Heck was worth $20 million at her death in 1995 at age 77. The feds had argued for $30 million, based on 1994 sales of $83 million, profits of $12 million, net assets of $74 million, high stock market values for two "comparable" firms and a mere 25% discount for estate-tax purposes. But the court put little stock in those comparables and essentially went with the Heck estate's proposed discount of 35% for the holding in the well-known company. Janet Novack

Maybe Not Quite So Hot as an Investor

A just-added plaintiff in the big Los Angeles civil lawsuit accusing William Gross, the founder of faltering business incubator Idealab, of lining his own pocket from the $1 billion raised: Cindy Margolis, 35, whose cheesecake photos have made her famous as the self-described "most downloaded woman on the Internet."
Seth Lubove

Charitable LargesseBut for Whom?

Nonprofits and fundraising are in the newsalong, sadly, with recent criminal cases involving top charity officials. William P. Barrett